Huge age divide in smartphone internet access as only one in three aged 65 and over use mobile internet

Clara Guibourg is an Online Writer at City A.M. She can be contacted at clara.guibourg@cityam.com. She is particularly passionate about women in business, technology and telecoms.

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If you don't use one of these, can we guess that you're older than 65? (Source: Getty)

The age divide in internet access is even more extreme than you might imagine. Essentially all young adults in the UK use smartphones to go online, but among those aged 65 and up, that figure dwindles to less than one in three.

96 per cent of adults aged 16 to 24 accessed internet “on the go” in 2015, according to new figures about the country’s internet use released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today.

In fact, if you’ve started feeling that smartphones are taking over, you aren’t wrong, as an Ofcom report also released today showed that Britain is now using smartphones more than any other device to get online.

Across all ages, 74 per cent accessed internet “on the go”, or in other words, away from home or work.

The ONS has been collecting statistics on internet access since 1998. In 2015, over three quarters of adults used the internet every day, or almost every day. Eight years ago, that figure was just 35 per cent.

And it’s not just mobile internet that’s been booming in that time, as 86 per cent of households now have internet access, up from 57 per cent in 2006.